Wealth & Money Quote by Bill Delahunt

The line reads like a policy argument, but it’s really a moral framing device: Delahunt turns a technical tax loophole into a fairness drama with winners, losers, and a community stuck holding the bag. “Brick and mortar” isn’t just a business model here; it’s shorthand for storefronts, jobs, Main Streets, and the civic life that happens around them. By pairing those businesses with “the communities that depend on them,” he widens the constituency and raises the stakes. You’re not just taxing retailers; you’re protecting the social infrastructure that physical commerce props up.

The phrase “cannot continue to bear” is doing a lot of work. It implies a breaking point and casts the current system as unsustainable, not merely imperfect. “Unfair sales tax burden” positions the issue as a rigged playing field, not a neutral byproduct of evolving technology. Delahunt’s real target is the long-standing gap in U.S. sales tax enforcement where online sellers, especially those without a physical presence in a state, could often avoid collecting sales tax at checkout. “Effectively exempt” is carefully lawyered: he’s not alleging illegality; he’s pointing to a functional outcome.

The subtext is political triage in an era of retail disruption. As e-commerce accelerates, local officials see eroding sales tax revenue and hollowing downtowns. This quote is a bid to align consumer convenience with civic cost, nudging voters to accept that the “cheaper online” price is partly a public subsidy paid by everyone else.